176 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



This feature of the summer life of these birds please 

 bear in mind. 



Any time after the middle of September there is likely 

 to be a change. A severe northeast storm coming, they 

 are gone ! A week may pass, and not a swallow is to be 

 seen. You may listen at the chimney holes, and not a 

 swallow is to be heard. The sky is as birdless as in bleak 

 December. But again the weather becomes warm ; our 

 magnificent October days are come. The mellowest sun- 

 shine of all the year gilds the broad meadows and adds a 

 glory to the scarlet maples ; and again scores of chimney- 

 swallows, as before, are flitting all day long in the cloudless 

 skies. Whence come these birds 2 They are not so many, 

 indeed, as were here before the biting northeast winds 

 bade all our summer birds depart ; but far too many to 

 consider them as mere stragglers. Indeed, they are too 

 strong of wing to be thus looked upon. We felt, or 

 might have felt, certain that the swallows had gone ; but 

 with the returning cheery days these birds are again with 

 us. Either they were closely stowed away during the 

 storm, or they are more northern birds which, leaving 

 their summer haunts beyond the track of the storm that 

 visited us, had only reached us as they were moving south- 

 ward after the storm had passed. This, I think, very 

 likely is the truth of the matter ; but many circumstances 

 strongly point to the former supposition that of tempo- 

 rary shelter during the storm. Here is an instance. On 

 the 4th of October of the past year the weather with us 

 was warm, the thermometer ranging from 65 to 85 Fahr. 

 Throughout the morning there was a brisk shower, or series 

 of showers ; but by 2 P. M. it had cleared, with a gentle 

 wind from the north. It gradually grew colder, and by 

 sunrise on the 5th the temperature had fallen to 40 Fahr., 

 and the wind had increased in violence. All this day 



